Blog #3: Memes!

"In just a few hours you'll be sitting around a campfire with Andy making delicious hot Schmoes." "They're called s'mores, Buzz." - Toy Story

I chose this particular meme because it is one that I feel its unique as it is very relevant to most millennials since most of us grew up watching Disney movies and many of us love all of Toy Story films. As posted above, the original quote is nothing like the popular meme that this image has been transformed into, it never includes the word "everywhere". In the film, Buzz Light year was just imagining a scenario that would have occurred in the future, nonetheless, internet users did it again and modified a meme and included the word "everywhere", which in my opinion, actually does fit Buzz Light Year's facial expression.
     I picked these first two memes as most college students will agree with the ideas that the images are trying to convey. But the last two images serve as an example of what Knobel and Lankshear expect of a meme.

      After reading Knobel and Lankshear's analysis on memes, I realized that memes have been around for a long time. I thought memes were just a recent popular trend, however, the analysis was very eye-opening as the authors included trending examples that took place more than a decade ago through different online websites, and that were popular during that time. The three most important characteristics that a meme can include, according to Knobel and Lankshear, are fidelity, fecundity, and longevity. 

      Moreover, I agree with the idea that a meme's purpose is not to be useful or extremely important, but to be memorable, which is why I chose this particular one, as I am sure many of my classmates can remember these popular Disney characters. I also mention this since I grew up in Mexico and even though I celebrate different holidays and have a different culture than most of my class mates, I can identify this image. This is where the longevity aspect of the meme comes into play as Toy Story 2 was released in 1999, yet 17 years later people can still identify it. In my opinion, memes are a great humorous way to relate ideas with different groups of people, and can work socially or even in a literary context as it is an easy and simple form of communication.

     As mentioned in Knobel and Lankshear's analysis, memes are a form of social literacy that has been recently recognized, and its practice has become more widely used by the digital community, and regardless of how old a concept is or if the original image was modified, such as in the image above, it is an efficient form of communication that can be recognized by a large audience. This previous image reflect longevity and is also susceptible as one of the characters is juxtaposed with an old viral sensation, which is presented in a similar outfit, but still manages to convey the concept of how a trend is taking place "everywhere".

      This last meme is one that may appeal to a large audience as many items say "made in china", and it can be seen throughout the world. This is a perfect example of a meme as it includes all three aspects, fecundity, longevity and fidelity, as it is presented in a modified way, yet, it manages to convey an idea, and it is relevant and will be for a very long time. Lastly I, analyzing memes has made me realize that memes are a form of social interaction, as certain audiences will find some memes to be more humorous than others, and some concepts to be more relevant than others as well, although they can utilized easily as the usage of an image makes it more appealing, it depends on the audience's point of view of what is humorous, relevant and memorable.

       

      Finally, I would like to mention that I find it interesting how the dialogue between the Disney characters does never include the word "everywhere" yet the meme managed to be widely used, it makes me realize that not everything that is believed by many people is actually true. In the future I will research and look for evidence before I make assumptions.